


It's Complicated Now...

by Skylar0Grace



Category: Moonlight (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-05
Updated: 2011-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:10:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylar0Grace/pseuds/Skylar0Grace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had turned Beth to make Mick happy but instead found himself drawn to the young vampire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Complicated Now...

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [**smallfandomfest**](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com/)

* * *

He watches her from across the room as she drinks a blood bag and marvels at how quickly she’s adapted. Of course, he was worried at first that she would remain in a coma and after that his concern quickly became about making sure she didn’t turn rogue. She’d been disorientated at first and, like all of them, wasn’t sure what her body was really craving. But he’d been there, made sure she knew she was safe and that he would help her the best that he could.

Beth finishes the bag and walks to the other side of the servery, putting the bag in the bin and it’s all he can do to remember that he has more experience than her and controlling his emotions should be easier. But her hips sway provocatively even though she doesn’t know they’re doing it yet and her lips purse in concentration as she reels in her desire for blood and discards the bag. She’ll know soon enough the effect she has on humans and vampires alike but he’ll be damned if he’s going to be the one to say anything.

In the back of his mind he wonders when Mick will show up. It’s been almost a week since the night he rang Beth and asked her to come over. Almost a week since he offered her the one thing that Mick wouldn’t and watched her struggle with her answer. He knew that she was torn between her own wants and Mick’s but he had already known that she would say yes. He’d been watching them for some time, his own decision made about what he would do if Mick kept refusing. He’d seen the scales tip the last time he’d seen her and knew that it was the right time.

But having Beth ‘missing’ for nearly a week would have been driving Mick crazy. He knows that he will have to make the call soon and let Mick know where she is. He’s surprised that Mick hasn’t come to him sooner but the fact that Beth’s scent has been altered by her turning would be confusing him and Josef supposes he’s trying to figure it out for himself first. All he really knows is that the fact he hasn’t made the call yet has nothing whatsoever to do with the woman in front of him practising some of the defensive moves that he’s taught her. Nothing at all to do with a niggling feeling that has him slightly off kilter.

The doors are flung open roughly and he doesn’t have time to decide if this is the right time. It just is. Mick storms in and Josef can tell that he’s been worried out of his mind. He’s hungry and has probably been neglecting his needs for several days but it is the panic in his eyes that gives him the sick feeling of guilt in the bottom of his stomach.

“I need your help! Beth’s missing - I’ve looked all over for her but I can’t find her anywhere. Her scent’s been covered up by som- ”

Josef doesn’t need to turn to know that someone else has entered the room. Only one person would be able to stop Mick in his tracks like that and when he looks up at Mick he sees confusion and anger. There’s not even a second before Mick lunges but Josef has centuries on him and he spins him around and holds him back.

He explains, the best he can, how he was watching Mick die slowly as Beth remained human and he a vampire. Knowing that he would have an eternity to think about the woman he loved and fearing what would happen when Beth died and left him alone with his thoughts. Vampires weren’t a warm, fuzzy group and Josef loathed to admit just how much he’d come to rely on Mick to keep him in touch with his humanity.

Turning Beth had seemed like the right thing to do.

What he doesn’t explain, is that over the past week, while he has been helping Beth through the transformation, that spark of humanity has caused him more anguish and guilt than he ever remembered. He hasn’t tried turning anyone since Sarah and he felt relief flood through him when Beth woke up. But that melted away as he helped her control her emotions, her bloodlust and taught her everything he knew.

And found himself in love with his best friend’s girl.

He’d always known deep down, he supposed. It didn’t take him long to see in Beth all the things that Mick saw. And he had to admit that a part of him was touched when she came to him for help instead of going to Mick - even when he told her just _how_ he was going to solve her problem. He hadn’t seen revulsion,as he’d expected, but a grim determination. Of course, she _was_ protecting Mick, but she’d still sought him out and those few moments with her had just compounded the feelings he had.

Mick walks over to Beth slowly, waiting for a reaction, something to tell him that she was different or unhappy, but she smiles at him with that brilliant smile of hers and Mick wraps his arms around her and holds her tightly. She closes her eyes and smiles softly as she wraps her arms around him and even from where he is across the room, Josef can _feel_ the love and affection between them.

She opens her eyes and looks at him for a moment, a whisper in time, and he realises that she knows how he feels about her. There’s something there, something that passes between them but he’s not sure what it is and it’s gone before he can decipher it. He doesn’t think about whether his decision to turn her was more for Mick’s benefit or his, he’s got forever for that, and forever is a _very_ long time.


End file.
